The Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the FAO Council at its 143rd Session in 2011. It updates the Global Plan of Action for Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources which was adopted at...[more]

The sterile insect technique has in many countries become an important control tactic for integration in area-wide integrated pest management programmes against fruit flies of economic importance. An important prerequisite of these programmes is the availability of adequate...[more]

A second meeting for the Integral Use of Cactus Pear and Other Cacti, and the 1st  South America meeting of Fao-ICARDA CactusNet was recently held in Argentina. The main objectives were;to promote and share knowledge on the importance and use of cacti for the semi-arid regions...[more]

Crop losses to pests are a major problem in sustaining production, and often, pesticides are used as the first line of defense against pests. However, the indiscriminate use of pesticides often impacts negatively on beneficial insects – insects that provide essential ecosystem...[more]

Future food security relies not only on higher production and access to food but also on the need to address the destructive effects of current agricultural production systems on ecosystem services and increase the resilience of production systems to the effects of climate...[more]